How can I pretty-print JSON using JavaScript?

Question

How can I display JSON in an easy-to-read (for human readers) format? I'm looking primarily for indentation and whitespace, with perhaps even colors / font-styles / etc.

Answer 1

Better way.

Prettify JSON Array in Javascript

JSON.stringify(jsonobj,null,'\t')

Answer 2

You can use JSON.stringify(your object, null, 2) The second parameter can be used as a replacer function which takes key and Val as parameters.This can be used in case you want to modify something within your JSON object.

more reference : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify

Answer 3

If you're looking for a nice library to prettify json on a web page...

Prism.js is pretty good.

http://prismjs.com/

I found using JSON.stringify(obj, undefined, 2) to get the indentation, and then using prism to add a theme was a good approach.

If you're loading in JSON via an ajax call, then you can run one of Prism's utility methods to prettify

For example:

Prism.highlightAll()

Answer 4

You can use console.dir(), which is a shortcut for console.log(util.inspect()). (The only difference is that it bypasses any custom inspect() function defined on an object.)

It uses syntax-highlighting, smart indentation, removes quotes from keys and just makes the output as pretty as it gets.

const object = JSON.parse(jsonString)

console.dir(object, {depth: null, colors: true})

and for the command line:

cat package.json | node -e "process.stdin.pipe(new stream.Writable({write: chunk => console.dir(JSON.parse(chunk), {depth: null, colors: true})}))"

Answer 5

Thanks a lot @all! Based on the previous answers, here is another variant method providing custom replacement rules as parameter:

 renderJSON : function(json, rr, code, pre){
   if (typeof json !== 'string') {
      json = JSON.stringify(json, undefined, '\t');
   }
  var rules = {
   def : 'color:black;',    
   defKey : function(match){
             return '<strong>' + match + '</strong>';
          },
   types : [
       {
          name : 'True',
          regex : /true/,
          type : 'boolean',
          style : 'color:lightgreen;'
       },

       {
          name : 'False',
          regex : /false/,
          type : 'boolean',
          style : 'color:lightred;'
       },

       {
          name : 'Unicode',
          regex : /"(\\u[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}|\\[^u]|[^\\"])*"(\s*:)?/,
          type : 'string',
          style : 'color:green;'
       },

       {
          name : 'Null',
          regex : /null/,
          type : 'nil',
          style : 'color:magenta;'
       },

       {
          name : 'Number',
          regex : /-?\d+(?:\.\d*)?(?:[eE][+\-]?\d+)?/,
          type : 'number',
          style : 'color:darkorange;'
       },

       {
          name : 'Whitespace',
          regex : /\s+/,
          type : 'whitespace',
          style : function(match){
             return '&nbsp';
          }
       } 

    ],

    keys : [
       {
           name : 'Testkey',
           regex : /("testkey")/,
           type : 'key',
           style : function(match){
             return '<h1>' + match + '</h1>';
          }
       }
    ],

    punctuation : {
          name : 'Punctuation',
          regex : /([\,\.\}\{\[\]])/,
          type : 'punctuation',
          style : function(match){
             return '<p>________</p>';
          }
       }

  };

  if('undefined' !== typeof jQuery){
     rules = $.extend(rules, ('object' === typeof rr) ? rr : {});  
  }else{
     for(var k in rr ){
        rules[k] = rr[k];
     }
  }
    var str = json.replace(/([\,\.\}\{\[\]]|"(\\u[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}|\\[^u]|[^\\"])*"(\s*:)?|\b(true|false|null)\b|-?\d+(?:\.\d*)?(?:[eE][+\-]?\d+)?)/g, function (match) {
    var i = 0, p;
    if (rules.punctuation.regex.test(match)) {
               if('string' === typeof rules.punctuation.style){
                   return '<span style="'+ rules.punctuation.style + '">' + match + '</span>';
               }else if('function' === typeof rules.punctuation.style){
                   return rules.punctuation.style(match);
               } else{
                  return match;
               }            
    }

    if (/^"/.test(match)) {
        if (/:$/.test(match)) {
            for(i=0;i<rules.keys.length;i++){
            p = rules.keys[i];
            if (p.regex.test(match)) {
               if('string' === typeof p.style){
                   return '<span style="'+ p.style + '">' + match + '</span>';
               }else if('function' === typeof p.style){
                   return p.style(match);
               } else{
                  return match;
               }                
             }              
           }   
            return ('function'===typeof rules.defKey) ? rules.defKey(match) : '<span style="'+ rules.defKey + '">' + match + '</span>';            
        } else {
            return ('function'===typeof rules.def) ? rules.def(match) : '<span style="'+ rules.def + '">' + match + '</span>';
        }
    } else {
        for(i=0;i<rules.types.length;i++){
         p = rules.types[i];
         if (p.regex.test(match)) {
               if('string' === typeof p.style){
                   return '<span style="'+ p.style + '">' + match + '</span>';
               }else if('function' === typeof p.style){
                   return p.style(match);
               } else{
                  return match;
               }                
          }             
        }

     }

    });

  if(true === pre)str = '<pre>' + str + '</pre>';
  if(true === code)str = '<code>' + str + '</code>';
  return str;
 }

Answer 6

User Pumbaa80's answer is great if you have an object you want pretty printed. If you're starting from a valid JSON string that you want to pretty printed, you need to convert it to an object first:

var jsonString = '{"some":"json"}';
var jsonPretty = JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(jsonString),null,2);  

This builds a JSON object from the string, and then converts it back to a string using JSON stringify's pretty print.